Blue Eyes

Tom might have mentioned we are color challenged. However I had an "ah-ha" moment this afternoon. Tom was laying down sideways and had Teagan propped up against his legs. It was then that I noticed our baby girl's eyes. They have always been a beautiful shade of blue, but now they have a name- denim blue. Her eyes were the exact shade of his shorts.

Kitchen Remodel, Part 2

As previously noted, we've decided to remodel the kitchen, at least in part, this summer. This past week, we had our cabinets refaced, and the counter tops and sink replaced, by Home Depot Home Services. The worker (it only took one) came out Tuesday and Wednesday and did the work, up to, but not including making the sink work again. Apparently, since he was a carpenter and not a plumber, he's not allowed to hook up the sink per some sort of rule, law or ordinance. No matter. Last night, Amy's parents came down, and my father-in-law walked me through installing the sink, from installing the faucet, to caulking and clipping the sink, to attaching the garbage disposal and drain. And guess what? It all works, and doesn't leak! Woo-hoo! So, we're two-thirds the way through this summer's phase of our kitchen remodel. All we have left for this summer is paint, which is still a problem because, as previously noted, we're not terribly gifted in color selection. I'll post before and after pictures once the painting is complete and this phase is done. Stay tuned...

Thanks again, Ed, for helping me get the sink installed and working!

My Current Diversion

Don't click this link if you have something important to be doing. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Boy O Boy

I would like to present the first picture of our son!


We went for our "you are over 35 and your daughter has a birth defect" level two ultrasound yesterday. The very first picture confirmed a boy very decisively. We are very excited and happy to report we have a healthy baby boy.

The Problem

Ignore the fact that my lovely daughter is crying. Seriously, just ignore it. What I'd like to call your attention to is all the way at the back of her mouth. Rather, what's not there. Now, find a child, spouse or friend, have them open their mouth, and compare. You'll notice that Bambina is missing a section of her soft palate and her entire uvula, compared with your reference. That's what is going to be repaired, very soon in fact. The surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6.

Finally Got Around to It

Finally got around to posting more pictures in Bambina's gallery. Head on over and check them out. If you need the link and/or password, drop me a note at my usual email address.

The Weekend In Review

Whew! What a weekend! First, a quick summary:

1. 7/3 after 5P: Drive to Conneaut Lake, PA
2. 7/4 all day: Picnic with F's, H's and G's
3. 7/5: Drive to Shalersville, spend the day with H's and G's
4. 7/6 AM: Church and baptism of Bambina
5. 7/6 PM: Lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse, drive home, grocery shopping

Now for the details:

The drive up was fairly uneventful. It rained a lot, but it wasn't nasty at all. Bambina played happily by herself most of the way. It wasn't until we got to Conneaut Lake at a little past 9PM that we hit a snag. My family has had a cottage at Conneaut Lake for as long as I can remember. It's rented out to other folks for most of the summer, but our family always has it the week of the fourth of July and gathers during that time. My mom's step mother also has a trailer on the other side of the lake which she uses herself, and often lets the rest of the family borrow when things get crowded at the cottage. The H's and G's were to be staying at the trailer rather than the cottage this summer, so we headed there. The first problem was that I was given the wrong key. Evidently, the locks had been changed, and there was a mix-up in the distribution of the new keys. I called my mom, who had given me the keys to the trailer, told her of the problem, and headed over to the cottage, where my uncle was staying. He had the correct key for the trailer, and I was hoping to borrow it. Problem two came as I got close to the street the cottage is on. Road closed. Large construction equipment across the road, beyond that, the pavement was completely gone. Crap. OK, it's a lake, we turned around and went the other way around the lake. Only to find that the road was again missing before the turn into the cottage. Called mom again to find out how the %#^& to get to the cottage, find out that with the closing of Conneaut Lake Park, a gate which had previously kept visitors from mingling with residents had been opened, and that was the temporary access to the cottage. Somewhere in there, Bambina woke up, hungry and in an unfamiliar place, so we had a wailing child for the last 45 minutes. Oh, and by time we got to the trailer, frustrated and amped up, the only place nearby that sold beer was already closed. Bummer....

But with all the chaos of Thursday night, the next few days were great. We had a great time with the F's, H's and G's on Friday, and a kind of relaxing day on Saturday with the H's and G's (which included a trip to the A&W stand for rootbeer floats and footlongs, mmmmmm). Sunday service was great, too. I was honored to be asked by the band to sing with them for a song I wrote a few years ago. It brought back a lot of great memories, and the band really made my poor attempt at music sound awesome. The baptism service itself was beautiful (so that our Catholic friends don't feel snubbed, many, if not most, protestant denominations don't have any notion of God-parents). The funniest part of the weekend, at least for me, was picking up the cake that Amy ordered for our lunch. She ordered it by phone from a grocery store in the vicinity, and we stopped on the way to Spaghetti Warehouse to get it. I went to the bakery to get it, gave the baker my name and she handed me the cake. I looked at it through the plastic cover and said, "Ummmm.... there's a problem with this cake." She looked at me quizzically, so I continued, "This isn't my daughter's name." She grabbed the order slip and blanched, then looked at what was written on the cake and blanched again. "Ummmm... what is your daughter's name, sir?" I told her Bambina's name, she looked at the slip and the cake again, and asked, "Was this phoned in?" "Yeah," I replied. "You know what this word means, right?" Blanched again. "Yeah" "So you know how funny this would be in any other circumstance, right?" "Yeah, here, lemme fix this for you..." So she took the cake and made the necessary repairs, knocked a few bucks off my bill and sent me away with the cake.

So, you're wondering what was originally on the cake? Probably the most ironic thing I could think of:

God
Bless
Pagan

Back to the Chair

Faithful readers of this blog will remember last year when I took issue with a poor experience with the American Red Cross, vowed to not donate blood again, and then got a follow up letter and phone call from a representative of the ARC. I actually made it to March before I gave blood again, but that was on a walk-up basis, and I would have turned around if there had been anyone else at the blood drive. However, a few weeks ago, I got a call from the ARC asking me to give blood and schedule an appointment. I expressed my reservations about delays when I had a scheduled appointment, but the rep assured me that the ARC had made some changes, and now it is policy to try to get to those with appointments within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, so I agreed, and signed up for this morning. Not only was I seen promptly (OK, I had the very first appointment of the morning), but the whole experience only lasted 30 minutes from the start of my appointment and, as a bonus, I happened to go on a day that Kroger was sponsoring a "Pint for a Pint" day at the blood drive and got a pint of ice cream! W00t! Ice cream aside, I was happy with my experience this morning, and will go again. The true test will be to see how well it works when I have an afternoon appointment.

Kitchen Remodel, Part 1

Amy and I decided to take the plunge this summer and upgrade/remodel the kitchen. You know, because it's so easy to do this sort of thing when you have a child under one year old and another one on the way. It was one of those things that we'd been considering for a long time and then just sort of decided to do all of a sudden.

The first part of our remodel got done this past weekend, with the help of my dad. One of the worst things about our kitchen/dining room is the lack of adequate lighting. There is a ceiling fan with a light over the table, and a fluorescent light over the sink on the other side of the room, and that was it. Nothing over the cooking or food preparation areas, so that sucked. Saturday, my parents came down, and Dad helped (well, he did most of the work while his clueless son tried not to lose any fingers) install recessed lighting over the stove, sink and countertop, and then removed the existing fluorescent light over the sink. It all works thanks to him (I'd have burned the house down), and looks great! All that's left is for me to patch a small hole in the drywall where he removed a light switch. Then onto painting, hopefully before the next phase, which will be refacing the existing cabinets and getting a new countertop. If we only had color sense, we'd be in business.

Anyway, thanks to my dad for teaching me how to install electrical equipment without killing myself or burning the house down!

PETA Would Be Happy

Tonight was a new food for Bambina, and the first from a one-time mobile food source: chicken in chicken broth. As I'm following the advice of countless pediatricians and tasting the food that I'm giving my child, I can say with authority that baby food chicken tastes yucky. That's probably not exactly correct. I think it actually tastes like chicken. Over-cooked, completely unseasoned chicken. GROSSLY overcooked. I understand why they would cook the bejeebers out of it (reduces the likelihood of nasties) and would refrain from seasoning (don't want to upset the timid tummies of tiny tots), but knowing doesn't make it taste any better. Bambina didn't like it any better than me. After about 10 spoons, she stopped swallowing, which is the signal for me to stop cramming it in. We switched to applesauce and she was much happier.

The more observant of you will notice that I added a sidebar with a short synopsis of each baby food I try. I'm not ranking applesauce, because we're giving her regular unsweetened applesauce that you get in a big old jar for a buck rather than the little teensy-weensy 2 oz containers for 50 cents.

Some Traditions Are Worth Keeping

Our first date was six years ago today. For that date, I drove down to central OH in the morning and worked out of a satellite office for my employer, then we went to dinner and ice cream. Six years later, I live in the area, so no need to drive several hours just to go out with my Sweetie, but dinner, ice cream and a walk are still important to us. So, we're leaving Bambina with a friend for a few hours and going out to remind ourselves of one of the best days of our lives.

Love you, Sweetie...

Great Father's Day

I had a great first Father's day. I got to sleep in until 8A, which is nice with a 6 mo. old in the house. Teagan got me two lawn mowings, which really makes my day since I hate to mow and Amy is on the inactive list again this summer. For lunch, we decided to test out my recently repaired belly and had lunch at Red Robin (sorry Rattus), and then went for a good, long walk at a local metro park. Loafed most of the evening, and Teagan even went down without much of a fuss. All in all, a good day.

Bugs Has Good Taste

Carrot baby food is pretty good, too...

Home Again (For Now)

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers, they are much appreciated. I'm back home, though I'm not sure if I'm staying. The belly ache that sent me to the hospital is still with me, though much reduced in intensity. I was given the option of spending another night or coming home, and that's not really a difficult call to make, is it? I opted to come home because "things are moving," if you catch my drift, which made the doctor think that I was going to be OK. Hopefully I won't end up back there tomorrow, because, lemme tell you, there are few things less pleasant than having a tube shoved up your nose and into your stomach...

Prayers for Tom

Please keep Tom in your prayers the next few days. He is in the hospital.

Last night he complained of an upset tummy. We did the usually routine- Tums, Pepto, Maalox, nothing seemed to work. He was up most of the night in between the pain and Teagan's crying.

This morning he went to the Urgent Care - they sent him to the ER. An X-ray and CAT scan later he is being admitted. He has a blockage in his digestive track. This means he has a tube down his nose and it is sucking the "stuff" out. He is pretty miserable. Apparently it took three tries to get the tube down and he really can't eat or drink because it is sucked back out. He also admitted that it is pretty painful. To top this all off, he has some drainage that is seeping down into his throat from his Ear/Nose/Throat infection. That was diagnosed late last week. He can't really cough anything up because of the tube.

So please keep Tom in your prayers that this blockage disappears quickly, the pain goes away and that he is able to sleep. (Also, I am gonna selfishly ask if you would keep me in your prayers too... I am gonna try and keep the home fires burning by myself.)

Updates to follow.

Thought for the Day

Sweet potato baby food doesn't taste half bad.

Just sayin'...

More News From the Couch

Now, why would Tom and Amy be looking so surprised? Click our picture to find out!

Mr. Lion

I would like you to meet Mr. Lion. He is Teagan's very best friend. Without him all of our traveling this month would not have been possible. Keys and burp cloth are also good friends but no one can take Mr. Lion's place. Click on Mr. Lion's picture for product information.

I Forgot To Post This

Do not, under any circumstances, click this link. After all, you remember what happened the last time I warned you not to click a link that I had posted...

On the Road with Tom and Amy (and Bambina, too)

It's been a busy month away from the couch:

1. May 3-4, spent in Pittsburgh, PA for the wedding of Rebecca and David, and spending a day with long-time friend, Rich. Amy had never met Rich's wife, Essi, and I hadn't seen their lovely daughters since.... well, it'd been a long time. Best wishes to Rebecca and David (hope you're settling in well to your life together), and many, many thanks to the Pinkerton family.
2. May 10-11, spent in Indianapolis, IN for the wedding of my cousin Kevin to his lovely bride, Jenni. Kevin is on my mom's side of the family, who had not yet met Bambina. The wedding and reception was almost as lovely as the bride. Sunday, my cousin, Lisa and her hubby, Tim, hosted a sumptuous brunch. Best wishes to the Kevin and Jenni, and thanks to Lisa and Tim for getting us all together.
3. May 17-18, spent in NE OH, working in my parents' kitchen ripping up linoleum flooring and helping install a new cabinet that my dad built. Game night with Xabu and a fist full of Youngkins, followed by copious quantities of wine with Xabu and Piglet. Back to my parents' Mosquito Ranch and Bird Sanctuary (their term, not mine) to pick up the wife and kid.
4. May 24-26, spent in NE OH, surprise birthday party for Piglet (won't say her age, I'm told that's not nice), went on an actual date with my lovely wife, holiday picnic with Amy's clan.

And that's just what we did on the weekends! Weekdays were interspersed with friends (Rattus, and Darrin and Maryann with their lovely girl), a baseball game, a trip to the pediatrician, six-month pictures for the Bambina, and various and sundry chores. Whew!

Bambina held up surprisingly well through it all. She traveled very, very well, sleeping most of the time, and only had one really bad meltdown that I think we're going to chalk up to a nightmare or somesuch.

So, it'll be nice to stay home next weekend. More news to follow soon, I'm just too tired to keep going tonight.